Decide the layout before you place a single name
The arrangement of the furniture does more work than the arrangement of the children. Rows produce quiet independent work and terrible discussion. Pods produce good discussion and constant low-level chat. A horseshoe produces the best whole-class talk in the room and wastes a lot of floor space. None of these is correct; they are simply suited to different lessons, and most teachers end up rearranging two or three times a year.
| Layout | Good for | Cost | Build it with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rows, facing front | Exams, silent reading, modelling from the board | Poor discussion; back row drifts | Rectangle or banquet tables in lines |
| Paired desks | Think-pair-share, most secondary lessons | One weak pairing spoils a fortnight | Rectangle tables seating two |
| Pods of four to six | Group tasks, practical work, primary classes | A third of the class has its back to you | Square tables grouped, or round tables |
| Horseshoe (U-shape) | Debate, languages, small sixth-form groups | Eats space; one U-shape holds 24 seats | The U-shape table |
| Double horseshoe | Whole-class discussion in a big group | Inner ring blocks the outer ring's sightlines | Two U-shapes, one inside the other |
Put the furniture down in the planner first and drag it about until the walkways make sense. You want to be able to reach every student without asking anyone to move a chair, and you want a clear path from the door to your desk.
Getting the class list in
Do not type 30 names. Copy the column out of your register or MIS export and paste the whole list in one go, one name per line. If you write each line as Name, Group you also get colour-coded groups in the same paste. What the groups mean is up to you: reading bands, houses, target grades, prior attainment, the three children who need to be near the front, or simply "support" and "stretch".
Once the groups exist, auto-seat will fill the empty seats group by group, which is what you want for pods and not what you want for rows. Use it for pod layouts, and for rows place the handful of students you care about first, then let it fill the rest.
For group work rather than seats, the random group generator splits the class into random groups of any size, keeps named students apart or together, and can seat the groups at tables in the planner.
Worked example: 30 students, six pods of five
Place six square tables and set five seats at each. Tag your class list with four groups when you paste it: front for the students who need to be close to you, steady, stretch and separate. Seat the four in separate by hand, one per pod, at the seats nearest your usual teaching position. Auto-seat the rest, then move the two or three placements that make you wince. Total time, about eight minutes. Export the floor plan for the wall by the door and a CSV for your markbook.
Print a copy for whoever covers your lesson
This is the highest-value thing a classroom seating chart does. A supply or cover teacher walking in with a plan can use names in the first two minutes, and that changes the whole hour. Without a plan they are reduced to "you, in the blue jumper".
Export the floor plan, print it, and keep it in the cover folder with the date on it. The print floor plan is free for plans under 50 people, counting everyone on the list, seated or not. Print it in the orientation the cover teacher will stand in, looking from the front of the room towards the class, and say so on the sheet. A plan drawn from the back of the room is worse than no plan at all. If you rearrange the furniture, reprint it the same day.
Why the CSV export matters here
A picture is for the person standing in the room. A list is for everything else. The guest list export gives you a plain CSV or TXT of every name with its group and table, which you can:
- Paste into a markbook or tracker so your marking order matches the physical room, which makes handing books back far quicker.
- Run through a mail merge to print desk name labels for a new Year 7 class.
- Send to a colleague who teaches the same group, so you are both using the same arrangement.
- Keep as a dated record of where a student was sitting, which is occasionally needed for a behaviour or safeguarding log.
Reshuffling each term
Change the plan at least once a term. It resets social habits before they harden, it gives you a legitimate reason to separate a pairing without singling anyone out, and it moves the students who have quietly colonised the back corner. Announce it as routine rather than as a punishment, and do it on the first lesson back rather than mid-week.
Practically: keep one saved file per class per arrangement. A browser holds a single plan at a time, so save 9B-autumn.tablout.json, then open it again in January, move a dozen names and save it as 9B-spring. If you teach eight classes, that is eight small files in one folder, with no account to create. The planner is free. The one paid item is the print pack, a single payment of €9.99 for the poster, the cards, the caterer sheet and, for plans of 50 people or more, the print floor plan and the CSV and TXT lists. A classroom rarely needs any of it. What is free and what is in the pack is set out in full on its own page. The same approach works for any event: the general table plan guide covers dinners and parties, and there is a separate wedding seating chart guide.
What this tool does not do
It is worth knowing before you invest an hour. There are no student photographs, so the plan shows names only. There is no behaviour tracking, no points, no attendance and no link to your MIS. There is a keep-apart rule: open Seating rules in the guest list, choose Keep apart, and auto-seat will never put those two students at the same table. Undo takes back recent changes while the planner is open, and one browser holds one plan at a time. Nothing is uploaded anywhere: the plan lives in your browser's local storage, which is a genuine advantage when the list is a class of children, but it also means clearing your browser data clears the plan. Save the file.
If you want more on the general method, how to make a seating chart covers the order of operations, and the planner itself takes about a minute to learn. Paste the class list, drop the tables where the furniture actually is, and print one copy for the cover folder.
Common questions
- Can I add student photos to the seating chart?
- No. The plan shows names and colour-coded groups only. If you need photos for a cover teacher, print your MIS photo sheet alongside the plan.
- Does it track behaviour or attendance?
- No. It is a layout tool, not an MIS. It produces the arrangement and a name list; behaviour points and registers stay wherever you already keep them.
- How do I keep a separate chart for every class I teach?
- Save each one as its own .tablout.json file, named by class and term. A browser holds one plan at a time, so reopen the file for whichever class you are editing.
- Can I stop two students being seated together automatically?
- Yes. Open Seating rules in the guest list, choose Keep apart and name the two students. Auto-seat will not seat them at the same table, and if no seat is left that keeps the rule it leaves the student unseated and tells you. Moving a student by hand can still break it, which shows as a warning.
- What is the best layout for group work?
- Pods of four to six, built from grouped square tables or round tables. Accept that some students will have their back to the board, and move the pods for whole-class input.